EAST MACHIAS, Maine — “I guess people really don’t care.” That’s the conclusion drawn by Jason Barry of East Machias, who seems baffled by what he perceives as a lack of law enforcement interest in what he describes as the “torture” and death of a female… Read More

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She was a beautiful dog :( This upsets me. A lot of people say pit bulls are mean dogs. All dogs can be mean. Every pit bull I’ve come into contact with were not mean dogs. I hope they catch who did this to her and prosecute them to the fullest!

hunting season in maine… gunshots in rural areas usually aren’t given a second thought.

Anonymous

18 shots is excessive…so someone had to have heard it and someone should have a conscience and speak up. That dog had teats and milk and you knew she just had a litter. Whoever did this is a MONSTER and it should be taken seriously, because they got off on this – and that is far from normal.

GrdnrLk Grl

Apparently you have not spent time in a gravel pit or shooting range… We hear gun shots out here throughout the year due to target practice and also hunting. Being that we live on a lake, it’s also not uncommon to hear firecrackers. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. Also- it was the owners that declared that there had been 18 bullets (initially it was a lower figure- something like 13 small caliber and 1 riffle). Law officials have not posted an actual count. Some wounds could have been from one bullet upon entry and exit; therefor making the ‘excessive noise’ far less. Remember that the dog was, after all, seen crossing a road just before it was found- per the owner; 18 bullets- the last being a riffle, I don’t think would have allowed the animal to wander through the woods and cross a road into a stand of crabby apples. But I am by no means an expert. There are just many things that don’t quite add up…

Anonymous

No, I live near the Hampden shooting range…so I hear shooting…and I don’t spend anytime in the gravel pit now that I am older. I think the fact it had its throat slit is the part that made me think this was an over kill by a MONSTER. 18 bullets…13 bullets…throat slit…that adds up to me.

GrdnrLk Grl

You are right, regardless….it is very disturbing and scary. In a previous post, I said that I was initially afraid to let my children and pets out to play alone….that has not changed. :( I hope that they catch the people who did this and soon. I was responding to the implication that neighbors are being silent. Everyone that I spoke to, before this hit the news, was shocked to hear that this happened in our back yard. We don’t understand how it could happen and no one heard or saw a thing. There are so many unanswered questions. Probably it’s just our fear trying to force logic to understand. Either way, it is disturbing. With that said though, the person who has been fingered (gossip to my knowledge) is the very same person we all immediately thought of. Every community has one…unfortunately, but that doesn’t make it true. I don’t know of anyone out here that would turn a blind eye to something so horrific out here. We are a close community. It would be a shame to find out otherwise. :o/

Rgiff

Tell youre Pit Bull, Bull mastiff stories to the man who just lost his wife to one. (She was a fireman) Parametic. See what he says.

Anonymous

Which was a new dog to the family, it was given to them by someone else. You do not know the history, any dog can turn. It is unfair to judge all dogs in one breed because of a few.

You’ve got to admit it’s almost always rottweilers and pit bulls and mastiffs.

Anonymous

Actually, I was bitten over the eye as a child by a standard poodle, and a golden retriever attacked my labrador and injured me in the scuffle. I might have judged all poodles based on that attack if the next standard poodle I’d met hadn’t been so friendly and sweet. On the other hand, I’ve known a decent amount of pits and mastiffs, and one very friendly rottweiler, and never had any problems with them.

It does happen, it just isn’t always deemed news worthy and in all fairness when one of the dogs you mentioned do “turn” they can do a lot more damage due to their jaw power.

*your. And only a very small percentage of these dogs are violent. The ones that are violent are so because of human beings who mistreat them.

Anonymous

what are you, the damn grammar police? If you are, why didn’t you point out how to spell paramedic?

Anonymous

actually, you could point out that Irish.Willy used the wrong form of the verb ‘to be’ in the first line. The verb and adverb ‘are violent’ should read ‘is violent’ since it modifies the subjective phrase, ‘a very small percentage’, which is singular. Therefore, the correct verb choice is the singular ‘is’, not the plural ‘are’.

Anonymous

The fact is, when they are violent, a person, usually not the owner, is dead or maimed beyond repair.

And as I said, any breed can be mean. More people I know have been bitten by labs than pit bulls.

Anonymous

Citation needed. I call shenanigans.

Anonymous

So if there is such a love for the breed, and I’m not saying what was done is ok by any means, why let her have pups ? Have you been to a shelter lately ? The people who did this are sick and I hope they are tracked down.

Anonymous

Why don’t they do the right thing, and give the reward money to a heating assistance program or a food pantry. Animals should not be tortured, but humans are an infinitely greater priority.

Nicky

How is a heating program or food pantry the right thing in this case? The right thing is keeping the donations animal related, either to stop cruelty or offer a reward for justice. Why should the money raised go to any cause except animals? It should not go to humans, they are the ones that did this. It is your opinion that humans are any kind of priority.

Anonymous

So sad that you would value a soul-less animal more highly than a human, who has a soul which is made in the image of God. I pray that you will one day realize the enlightenment that your Creator extends to you at every moment of your life.

alf999

SO, You are saying the the person(s) who shot this dog multiple times and slit it throat have a soul? My Mom was right !astards rule the earth.

Anonymous

You can always pray for someone who has done something bad. We all have souls, whether we act rightly or not. My whole point of view in this affair is to note the outpouring of grief over an animal, while millions of babies are legally murdered in this country, and poor people are ignored or manipulated by other people who couldn’t care less about them. I would rather see money raised to help people, rather than see a reward raised over the cause of a dead animal.

Anonymous

If God is the great creator of all living things on Earth then all living creatures on Earth were made in the “image of GOD”, all of them, mind, body and soul of every living thing. A soul is energy, spirit, love and understanding!!!!! I know my animal has all these qualities more so than some so called humans, just because you are in human form doesn’t mean you have a soul. You need to “enlighten” yourself of what being soulful is! Understanding GOD is understanding that all of GODS creatures are special and amazing and significant no matter how small they seem!!!!!

alf999

The thing with donating money is you expect it to be used for the cause it has been donated for. Many town transfer stations have a bin for helping elderly with fuel cost. So maybe the donations that come in during the summer should be used for the animal shelter or some other cause?

Anonymous

I would first look to the neighbors as the culprit. Brings to mind the night a neighbor threatened to slit my dog’s throat because she barked and rushed toward him when he stepped out of the darkness; she didn’t go beyond the boundaries of my property. The police told me there was nothing they could or would do about the threat; she was ‘just a dog, not a person.’ I was informed that if any of the dog’s were killed, they would ‘look at him’ first, but there is usually no way to prove who kills an animal. The message was clearly, ‘we don’t much care.’ This is the same police department that forced me to allow drunken, threatening housemate into the house because, ‘he lives here, too.’

alf999

We use the Invisible Fence with our large mixed breed dog. The guy who lives down the street was stopping at the bushes at the end of our driveway with his smaller dog, They would just stay there hiding behind the bush, instigating my dog, when I went out there he kept moving, I knew he would be coming back so I put my dog in the house, got in my car, put some ear plugs in and when he stopped at the bushes I blasted the car radio and the horn until he was past my house, He has’nt been stopping as much lately.

“Right now we’re not doing anything”? Try doing your job and investigating who did this, Nelson. People who murder animals this grotesquely will eventually turn their violence towards humans. Cheers to Jason Barry for drawing some public attention to this horrible crime.

The local police cannot even solve people on people crimes most of the time,im sure this case is getting very little attention.Only a sick sick person could do such a thing to an animal,whatever the breed was.

Anonymous

Most people who harm animals “graduate” to harming people.Donnie Smith needs to put some time in on this.The fact that the dog was both shot multiple times and had its throat slit is terrifying.I wish the article had given info on how to help if one couldn’t walk on Sunday.

Anonymous

how about the link to the donation page BDN??

Anonymous

How any human being can abuse and kill an animal for the thrill of it is beyond comprehension. A person without a conscience is the scariest kind of human being.

Screw the dog what about more important things like Hostess being gone and no more twinkies?

GrdnrLk Grl

Nelson is right about details ‘not adding up’. I live very closed to where this happened. When I first heard about it, I was horrified. I couldn’t believe that there was anyone out here who would do something so…psychotic… and it made me feel like my family (children and pets) were not safe to play in our own yard. As the weeks have passed, I’ve thought a lot about the story and have a lot of questions. The details really don’t add up. Maybe the BDN can follow-up:

1- The dog had very recently given birth to a litter of 13 puppies. Why separate the mom and puppies, even for a move? Don’t the puppies need mom for food and warmth?

2- How far were they moving? From their home to the place that this happened is less than a 10 minute drive. Perhaps even 5 minutes if they drove straight from location A to location B. Didn’t the dogs go potty before leaving home?

3- OK- so in haste the dogs didn’t potty before heading out on the road to a new home, why drive 3 miles up a newly paved road that’s speckled with residential housing (many retired folks and also young families with children, it’s an active community), why not use the many gravel roads that were used once to harvest timber? This would have been quicker, more private, and safer.

4- The dog ran for ‘home’. This means the dog ran straight for the lake shore. One can’t get to E. Machias from this location without a boat or running AROUND Gardners and 2nd Gardners. This would put the dog in the front and back yards of many of my neighbors. I’ve asked around, no one saw the animal. –excepting the one man that told the owner that the dog crossed the road in front of him minutes before all bloody. (will get back to this)

5- The owners searched hours across a 2 day span for the animal. I’ve asked around, no one saw a family looking for a dog, nor were they approached by anyone looking for a dog. We’re a close community, people talk, strangers stick out.

6- The dog was shot 18 times. Yes, it’s hunting season, so it’s very common to hear gun shots. Even outside of hunting season, it’s common because of the gravel pits where people target practice. It seems that in this location (residential), someone would have noticed 18 gun shots and possible dog noises. No one yet.

7- The dog was spotted by a man, going to work, who said it crossed the road in front of him, all bloody. Who was this man? We see lots of dogs out here wandering. They’re part of our general conversations- one dog makes house rounds (BEST fed pooch in town!), another runs the shore line at night baying, another gets lost chasing pheasants because he just can’t help himself, there are a pair that just like to ‘get out for a run’ together. When we (the community) don’t see them for a while, we call the owners to make sure they’re ok. When we pass the owners or neighbors, there’s always a –hey, Boomer will be down to see you soon! Or, yep Thunder’s on the tear again. Or, you hear about the Beagle, made it to Cutler this time, crazy thing. When we see dogs we don’t know. We all start calling around to find out who it belongs to. Often they are taken in doors for the night and pampered. Dogs are a big part of this community. They’re as well watched as the kids.

8- So, hearing of the location, the owners went straight to the spot and found the dog dead. 18 gunshot wounds and a slit throat….shell casings and pools of blood with trails. How is this all possible, wasn’t this dog crossing the road moments before?

9- The dog was found in an apple orchard. We don’t have an apple orchard. We have clumps of old crabby apples here and there, just like most of Washington County.

10- The owners state that they know who did this. There are rumors as to who did it. The person has his own pit, knives, guns that he’s posted pics of on FB over the years…and the drug traffic to and from his house and his friends’ houses and to many meetings spots out here have become an issue. So much so that some neighbors have started their own patrols over the past year to discourage drug activity, but most of us pretend not to see because we are afraid of retaliation. We are 20+ min from the Sherriff. They are aware, but can do little due to the distance.

Some think, that all of the above taken into consideration: a man and 3 pit bulls in one a truck associated with #10, was not a potty break, but a power play or deal gone wrong. Again, gossip in a small community.

There are so many questions. I have no doubt that something awful happened to this animal. I hope that any who had a part in this are severely punished. But I also think that the owners played a bigger part in this animal’s demise than what they are presenting. And hence, the law enforcement’s struggle to investigate. It’s not for lack of trying, it’s for lack of truth. We are a good and loving community, made up of retired law officers, game wardens, emergency responders, superintendents, lawyers, veterans, teachers, business people, and locally prominent, well respected, and rooted families. If anyone had seen this poor animal someone would have said something to someone else and it would have turned into a chain of calls and concern. I find it strange that most of us had no idea that this horrible thing had happen in OUR BACK YARDS until it was posted to the news channels 5 days later.

I don’t think I go so far as to say that. I don’t know the owners. There just seems to be many details that don’t add up. Sometimes things get out of hand and escalate to a place where one would never have thought it could have gone to. People do things in fear to cover up or erase the truth that they are afraid of others knowing. I think that both may be closer to the truth than the mystery being portrayed here. Either way, I hope that they find those involved in this animals horrifying death and punish them severely.

GrdnrLk Grl

Also- they searched until 4:30am, between 6:30-7:30am, and again for several hours 8:00am on. The dog was seen crossing the road that AM by a man driving to work. So, the dog had to have been shot 4:30-6:30 am or 7:30am-8am? While everyone is waking up and getting ready for school and work? 18 shots- someone would have noticed. And if not during those hours, wouldn’t the owners have heard the shots? AND…they drove hours and hours, asking questions of anyone they met. There are three roads out here that form a Y- and I have yet to talk to someone that saw/spoke to them or know of any one else that had. Also, the man that’s been accused, isn’t home at that time- he has an every AM errand. I pass by him almost every morning on my way to work- me leaving town, he just getting back in. A lot of things not adding up…

Anonymous

Pit bulls were bred to bait bulls.
That is, to attack, bite and not let go even when being flailed about by a much larger and stronger animal.
It is pretty sick that someone would torture and kill an animal just for the sadistic pleasure of it, but these dogs have no place as pets in our society.
They were genetically selected to attack, and they continue to do this with pretty good regularity.
Only a fool would bring them into a neighborhood with children or the elderly, and roll the dice with someone else’s life about just when and how nature overrides nurture.

Anonymous

18 gunshots and he was still alive? Something is not right I would like to see the official report on what was really done to this dog.

ladybaroque

I am so sorry that this beautiful mama dog was tortured and killed like this.

Anonymous

how did the dog go missing……was it on a leash?

I would be more than a little nervous if i seen a loose pitbull running around on my property…….i have small kids……was it wrong to shoot this poor animal?….absolutely!

I have read too many stories of these pitbulls attacking and killing small children and adults.

You know what the owners say ” I can’t understand it….he never did that before”….mean while a grieving parent has to make funeral arrangements for their small child.

I know people are going to say i am hating on the pitbull……but you never hear of a Lab or Beagle or Collie attacking and killing people like these pitbulls so often do.

I do not blame the dog as much as i do the irresponsible owner for allowing this dog to run loose…….you have to be responsible for a gun…..you should also be responsible for a pitbull!